US Open revamps mixed doubles format, adds $1 million prize to incentivize "biggest names in the sport"

What started as a summer of breaking new ground on hard courts for Rafael Nadal ended with unfortunate breaking news: Rafael Nadal will miss the US Open.

The Spaniard was affected by a foot injury during the very first match he played in his tournament debut at the Citi Open, in early August. Excitement was palpable in the tennis community for Rafa's D.C. appearance, but that quickly turned to concern despite his third-set tiebreak win over Jack Sock. The next night, Lloyd Harris eliminated a compromised Nadal, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4,.

While Nadal played valiantly in both contests, and traveled to Toronto the following week for its Masters tournament, he would withdraw from the National Bank Open before his first match (which would have been against Harris).

At the time, the withdrawal was seen as precautionary; in time, it would be seen as a prelude to another, more significant pullout.

In addition to missing the US Open, Nadal will not play any more tournaments in 2021.

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Rafael Nadal announces that he will miss the US Open and the rest of the 2021 season because of his foot injury. Long thread here in Spanish explaining that he has been suffering too long with it and needs to find a solution. Says he intends to come back https://t.co/OHmZnv3Qcz
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) August 20, 2021

This year's US Open was to be an unprecedented collision of three 20-time Grand Slam singles champions: Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Now, only Djokovic will compete for a record-breaking 21st major title. (Earlier this week, defending champion Dominic Thiem also announced that he'll miss the tournament.)

We will continue to update this developing story.

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When he lost to Harris in Washington D.C., Nadal had played over three hours against Jack Sock the night before.